SAILING HACKS: FOOD on a BOAT, Cleaning, Storing, Tips & Tricks.

Food management of a Sailing Boat is crucial. Our first experience was sailing off grid to the South Pacific with 6 months’ worth of food. We had to be on top of it every day. We learnt by doing, checking tricks
on internet and with our own experience. These are the useful tips we have learned after almost 2 years of cruising life!

Preserving food is an essential task. There is always concern about waste or spoilt food. Our main worry is humidity, heat and of course crawling critters and bugs from hell!!

All food goods that come aboard are cleaned and dried, before being allowed inside to eliminate any disease and pests. We remove any cardboard packaging or paper labels from tinned goods. (Note: Always remember
to write the name of the food on the tin, to avoid playing Russian roulette with your food!!)

Most fruits, especially Papaya and Banana get washed in water and vinegar to remove any pests, and dried with a clean towel.

Storing food is just as important as cleaning it, to keep the bugs out but also to save money. 35% of the average household garbage is food waste. Every year we waste almost 4000 dollars’ worth of food. Can you
believe it?

Our favorite system so far is food buckets, preferably with a screw lid. We also use a vacuum sealer and re-usable vacuum sealed bags, to avoid too much plastic waste. Food such at lentils, seeds or pasta and rice is vacuum packed and then placed inside the buckets for added protection.

We have a large crew aboard Sylfia, so we buy food in bulk. It reduces costs and your wallets will Thank You!!

Storing 6 months of food, on a boat for a large crew can be challenging, as you can imagine. We store a lot of food in the bilges, as that is the darkest and coolest place on the boat. Making sure everything is sealed in containers, in case any salt water comes in.

Everything has a place and we practice food management. We work together as a team and assign chores each week. So that our food is taken care of, kept clean and there is minimal waste. The cook is informed of any food that needs using or will go off soon.

Useful Tips: Putting a couple of Bay Leaves in Rice and Flour will keep bugs out! Onion and Garlic, hate the fridge and sun. Put them in a basket in the kitchen or a Tupperware in the bilge when not using. Bananas are hard to keep fresh, a useful trick is to wrap the stalks in tin foil (keep them away from other fruits as they ripen faster). Potatoes that you don’t use straight away need to go in a dark, spacious, well-ventilated space. Potatoes give off C02, if they don’t have enough air or space, they become wrinkled and soft.